Mysterious signs

What is it about the mysterious signs in the chapel of the dead at Igls and the parish church of St. Sigmund in the Sellrain? Ever since I first saw the mysterious signs in the Sellrain, the subject gave me no peace. To be honest: I am not a cryptologist and therefore not able to solve the riddle. And yet I would love to know what is written there. My reasoning: Maybe there are people among my readership who can solve the medieval Enigma?

Secret writing was in vogue in Tyrol, especially around 1500. It was also a time when Emperor Maximilian was eager to encrypt messages and news. After all, there was a lot at stake. The two enigmatic messages on the church walls in Igls and St. Sigmund im Sellrain date from precisely this period.

The secret writing that has been visible from afar in Innsbruck's old town for 500 years remained mysterious and enigmatic until 2020: the Hebrew-looking signs on the Goldenes Dachl. Erhard Maroschek finally succeeded in unravelling the mystery surrounding the writing . I first reported on this groundbreaking decoding in this blog.

Now there are more mysteries to be solved. Mysterious black characters appear in two different places: in the Chapel of the dead at Igls and in the Church of St. Sigmund in the Sellrain. I think deciphering the inscriptions could become an exciting pastime during the lockdown.

The mysterious characters came to light in Igls when the chapel was renovated in 1970. The crucifixion fresco on the front wall of the chapel from the year 1486 prompted the walls to be examined for further frescoes. To the surprise of the restorers, black characters appeared on the west side, partly delineated with black lines. Numerous small crosses are interspersed in the texture. Some larger, others smaller. The ends of the beams are thickened in a wedge shape, and on one of the crosses the transverse beams are again formed as crosses.

The black, mysterious characters consist of letters in the size of 8 to 12 cm. According to this, the characters must have been applied before the Gothic fresco. That would cover exactly the period in which secret writings teemed. In addition, the then reigning Emperor Maximilian I was apparently a great fan of coded texts and messages. He himself had a scroll with secret contents attached to his monumental architectural masterpiece, the Golden Roof. As already mentioned, it was not until more than five hundred years later that it was possible to decipher the contents.

The fact that in the church St. Sigmund almost similar mysterious signs appear on the church wall is little surprising to me. After all, the church was just on the way to Maximilian's hunting grounds in Kühtai, which he loved above all else. Was he perhaps the one who commissioned the secret signs? Were they spells intended to ensure the emperor's salvation?

On superficial examination, they are reminiscent of Cyrillic or Coptic characters. "A closer study shows that the resemblance to such scripts is only superficial and that it is a German cipher," judged 1972's legendary one-time state conservator Dr. Johanna Gritsch. She finally unveiled in a Festschrift for Karl Schadelbauer first decoding attempts. They hardly make sense, but the attempt was worth it.

The system of the Igler inscription, according to Gritsch, "uses a number of other characters in addition to regular letters such as M, N, T, I, H, Z." One combination, which she interpreted as OFN, occurs several times. Perhaps signs of a prayer formula?

Gritsch also believed she had identified the author of the inscriptions by name. His name was apparently Hans Posch. According to Gritsch, the name is written on the north wall and appears below the two small crosses in this text:

OFN OFN

WRITING WRITING

GMAACH GMACHT

T INGOT IN GOT

POCZ HANS POSCH HANS

OFN NHR OFN NHR

The signs on the vault surface in the northwest corner, she also interpreted:

OH OH

RAIN KINT PURE CHILD

GAVE GNET GIVE GNAD

IS TAS A IS THAT A

PANT TRAI BAND FAITHFUL

IT HER... IT HER...T

T NET NET....N

GE GE

What should be basically certain, Gritsch formulated thus: "The coarseness of the characters, the fact that individual letters are used laterally reversed, the absence of soft B and D makes one think that the scribe was a man who, without thorough education, possessed talent and certain knowledge and was very proud of it." What the one-time state conservator forgot to add: ... and was called Hans Posch.

He did not only immortalize himself as a scribe. The use of a secret writing, which was illegible for the population, had an incredibly mysterious and significant effect on the people of the late Middle Ages. And for the romantic thinking of the time around 1500 such secret-enshrouded writings were characteristic.

The interesting question in this context: Was this 'Hans Posch' also active in St. Sigmund? The time around 1500 would fit. The present church with its Gothic high altar in the west and entrance in the east dates from around 1490 and replaced a small predecessor church, which is now incorporated into the north side of the nave. Its gothic frescoes are, by the way, very worth seeing.

During my research in St. Sigmund I was lucky, after attending the early mass I was able to ask priest Leopold Baumberger about the script. He is of the opinion that these are rather attempts at writing and painting by building craftsmen. Quasi scribbles as a trial run for further paintings. The priest of the Premonstratensian Canons of the Wilten Monastery, who is in charge of the parishes of the Sellrain, says that there is no secret behind the signs. So it's just old nonsense? That cannot be ruled out.

A drawing actually suggests that expert hands had 'daubed' the walls. The depiction of two lancet windows and the corresponding rosettes gives rise to the suspicion that a connoisseur of the Gothic style had drawn here. The remaining visible signs, however, give rise to the suspicion that the same script painter who had already graced the chapel of the dead in Igls with his secret messages was at work here.

For all cryptologists I have made a special compilation of the ciphertexts, which can be downloaded. Including a first, but incomplete enumeration of the characters 'translated' by Dr. Gritsch. Maybe there are cryptologist talents in my readership. Would be nice.

If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions: please post them in the comments column below.

The church in St. Sigmund is locked during the day. With justification, even the donation box is often 'gutted'. The predecessor church with its old and partly beautiful gothic frescoes can therefore only be visited during a mass.

Treatise of the former Landeskonservatorin Dr. Johanna Gritsch

Representation of all characters Igls and Sigmund, ©Kräutler